Could A Black Athlete Get Away With Brett Favre’s Behavior?

It’s becoming routine every summer for Favre to publicly contemplate retirement, waver between coming back or leaving for good, and then eventually decide he’ll play another year of football.

This year proved no different, as the Minnesota Vikings quarterback and future Hall of Famer was “convinced” by teammates to come back and try to win a Super Bowl. For the last three days, we’ve heard constant updates about Favre’s status for this season. We were finally relieved on Wednesday, when it was “officially” announced that Favre would play another year.

This is the third straight summer that we’ve been forced to go through the Brett Favre circus. It’s become a joke, where every year we roll our eyes and give smug remarks about whether Favre will come back again or not.

A couple of weeks ago Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco asked teammate Terrell Owens via twitterwhy Favre is allowed to bask in media attention without criticism, but when they do it, they are mocked or worse, vilified. I agree with Ochocinco; if he or Owens ever made a production over a retirement decision like this, they would get blasted by every football writer and football fan in America.